“With the click of a button we can see which contractors are inducted and compliant…. The other advantage of this system is that you’re actually approving the company before the person can get inducted. You don’t get inducted or get on site unless your company has been approved.”

– Allison Smith, Senior Advisor Health and Safety Risk

With 8 campuses located in both the heart of Melbourne and the surrounding regions, Victoria University is dedicated to providing quality education to their students, and a safe working environment for staff, contractors, technicians and visitors. They are a broad institution covering tertiary education and TAFE.

Victoria University needed a way to standardise their induction, contractor management, and contractor sign-in process. This was particularly important in situations where contractors were working on multiple sites in a single day. In these instances, Victoria University wanted to ensure that these contractors could only work onsite if they were fully compliant. It was also important for the University to track the contractors’ hours on site to determine how long they were working.

THE SOLUTION

“I am comfortable with the product… the user interface works well. I didn’t have much instruction but I have been able to figure out most things, and if I can’t then a bit of the assistance from the helpline sorts it.”

Rapid Induct and Rapid Contractor Management were implemented to help Victoria University manage all their contractors and their inductions. When contractors are first invited to site, they are sent a ‘request to register’ email to get them set up on the Rapid system. This begins their online registration process, which includes uploading all company documents and answering pre-qualification questions about matters such as WH&S issues. By completing the form, they are also agreeing to abide by the Victoria University OHS requirements.

After a contractor has completed this registration and been approved by the University, their employees can then do the online OHS inductions via Rapid Global. These employees are then able to sign in via the Rapid Access terminal in the security office. This provides them with a wearable printed label which acts as a visual cue to Victoria University staff indicating that they are compliant. If someone is seen working without a label, they can be approached by staff and questioned.

“I think it can really tighten up the due diligence aspect of it. Universities are very open environments… there are people walking in and wandering about all the time. So what people really like here is that if a contractor is doing something and you can’t see a label on them, you can enquire ‘where’s your label?’… and check what people are doing.”

THE RESULTS

The Rapid systems have helped Victoria University to reduce their contractor list, thus making it easier to find preferred suppliers. For example, if an academic needs a small technical job done, they can easily go online to Rapid Access and find out which contractors are the preferred ones for the University.

The Reports feature has also been particularly helpful, because occasionally contractors will try and get around the fact they are non-compliant by signing in as a visitor instead of as a contractor. By running a report, Victoria University’s management can easily see which people or companies are making a habit of signing in as visitors instead of as contractors and then follow up as to why.

By enforcing these inductions, and signing in processes through Rapid Global, there has been a significant increase in contractor compliance.

“There is definitely an increase in compliance because we can track compliance and follow up with people if required. With a click of a button we can see which contractors we’ve got, what insurances they have, whether they’ve got people inducted – we can do that easily.